Protective bibs have long been available to protect a baby's clothing from spilled food and liquid during feeding. The basic configuration of a bib is a piece of material covering the baby's chest with some means for attaching or securing the bib to the child. Various attachment means have been used.
One common configuration is a bib with a clothing protective front panel and two extending flaps which extend up to the child's shoulders and around its neck. The two extending flaps are then secured behind the baby's neck by some securing means. Common securing means include a tie string, buttons or a pair of patches of hook and loop fasteners, such as Velcro. Because the securing means are located at the back of the baby's neck, the person applying the bib can either see the securing means or the tightness of the bib around the baby's neck, but not both. Numerous problems arise when using these configurations.
First, a dangling tie string is an attractive nuisance which presents a hazard for a child. Infants grab and play with anything they can reach. When using a tie-string bib, infants pull their bibs lose as soon as they can get their hands on the string. Also, a baby can inadvertently get their bib wrapped around an arm of a high chair or some other protrusion resulting in the string being pulled tight around the baby's neck and the child being injured.
Second, when such a bib is secured with buttons, snaps or fasteners, the tightness of the bib cannot be adjusted beyond the geometry of the securing means. As such, the tightness of the bib cannot be personally tailored, resulting in either a choking hazard when the bib is too tight or a spill hazard when the bib is too loose.
A bib that is too loose around a baby's neck is a considerable and frequent problem. A loose bib allows food and liquid to be spilled onto the baby's skin or clothes. It is especially problematic when liquid drips into a baby's neckline where a newborn may have folds of sensitive skin. When liquid is in contact with a baby's sensitive skin for a prolonged period of time, the baby is likely to develop a rash which is able to irritate an infant.
Also, no matter what securing means is used, children are often irritated with wearing a bib, and they will pull at any accessible part of the bib. The above configurations allow the child to either remove their bibs by tugging, to tighten them to a dangerous level by pulling the tie rope, or to tighten them so that the bib is difficult to untie.
Furthermore, bibs with flaps and an around the neck securing means are difficult to remove from a sleeping baby. It is most desirable to remove the soiled and wet bib immediately after a feeding to prevent the baby from getting wet, dirty and cold. Children, especially infants, often fall asleep after feeding. Bibs configured to only be removable from the back requires a caregiver to lift the baby's head, reach around the child, fumble with the securing means, remove the bib and move their child back into a comfortable position. Such maneuvering often times wakes up and irritates the baby.
Another common configuration is an “over the head” bib. An “over the head” configuration is a simple and common bib design. This configuration has major drawbacks. First, the “over the head” bib must be manufactured to be one-size-fits-all, and is therefore not customizable to fit a particular baby. Furthermore, to be comfortably placed over the head of a baby, the opening in the “over the head” bib must be larger than the baby's head and their delicate facial features. The result of this need for a large opening is that the bib will never be comfortably secure around a baby's neck, or perhaps even their upper chest. The problem with removal of this type of bib is even more problematic as with the previous configuration, and waking or disturbing a sleeping baby is almost inevitable.
Parents and caregivers spend considerable money on baby clothing, and considerable time changing and laundering the baby's clothing. Given the inefficiency of the bibs described in protecting the clothing during feeding, clothing not only gets wet but often stained, defeating the primary protection purpose of the bib. It also leads to more frequent clothing changes than would be necessary with an efficient bib, and a corresponding increase in laundering the clothing, not to mention unnecessary discomfort to the child.
Another problem associated with traditional bibs is that babies grow quickly and tend to grow out of their bibs. This problem is compounded if an attempt is made to procure a bib that fits well enough to adequately protect the child's neck. Since such a bib should cover the baby's neckline, a small amount of growth will render the bib too tight and useless.
Furthermore, parents and caregivers will feed an infant multiple times each day, especially in the child's earliest stages in which feedings occur as many as 10-12 times per day, with much of those times in the middle of the night. As such, the irritation associated with common bibs listed above are compounded after numerous occurrences. Also, using inefficient bibs, which do not protect the baby's skin, especially the neckline, can lead to significant frustration on the part of the feeder and results in skin irritation on the part of the child.
An additional problem associated with traditional bibs is found in the use of front-affixed pockets with the intended use of catching dropped or spilled articles such as food, liquid, etc. Most commonly such pockets are ineffective because they are tightly stitched to the front panel of the bib and do not protrude to catch items. Furthermore, debris actually caught in front-affixed pockets is difficult to clean out of the pocket. The debris commonly gets lodged into the creases and corners of the pockets and is not removed when laundered, causing unpleasant and unsanitary conditions.